No evidence in Marollen murders

12 July 2007

BRUSSELS – The knife used to kill François-Xavier Storme (48), his wife Caroline (48) and their daughter Carlouchka (22) in their textile shop in Brussels will never be found. It has been incinerated along with other household refuse. The mystery continues to grow, Het Nieuwsblad reports.

Léopold Storme (19) continues to be the only suspect of the murder of his parents and sister. On Wednesday the court refused his request to be released.

Léopold continues to deny that he murdered his family. He says he was in the textile shop when they were killed but was beaten unconscious by the real murders and awoke with the knife in his hands.

He says that he threw the 30-cm long knife and his blood-stained clothing into a garbage bin in Ostend. This confession came too late for detectives: the contents of the bin had already been collected by the city services and incinerated.

Lawyer Pierre Huet says he sees no reason not to believe Léopold’s story. “He also continues to deny he had taken any drugs. The toxicology report confirms that. Why would he lie about the rest? ”

The examination of security camera footage has not helped investigators either since Léopold does not appear anywhere in the footage. But nor have the two perpetrators that Léopold talks about been caught on camera. The camera was not aimed directly at the shop’s entrance however.

Subject: Belgian news